Crashing together
by Iina-chan
Summary: The most important rule when you are driving is to keep your eyes on the road. What happens when you ignore it completely? Zoro is about to learn this rule the hard way... ZoLu LuZo, SanNam, what ever you name it. Chapter 6 is up!
1. Ch1 Keep your eyes on the road

**Alternative Universe**

**Pairings: ZoLu, LuZo, and SanNam, NamSan whatever you like to call it…**

**Rating: T for language might go up to M…**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my computer and my manga volumes. One Piece and its characters belong to Eiichiro Oda-sensei. **

**A/N: My first One Piece fic! Yay! Actually this my first fic ever… so people please be kind and leave a review, let me know what you think about this! This chap is all about Zoro, okay. Luffy will shine in the next one and after that it's getting to ZoLu part so… Read and Review!**

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**Crashing together**

_By: Iina-chan_

**Chapter 1: Keep your eyes on the road**

"Where the hell are you driving?!" an annoyed bark was heard from the right of a green haired man as he tried to find his way to the center of the city.

Frowning irritably, the driver hissed in return, "I'm driving so shut up!" Muttering curses as he steered the wheel randomly, hoping that this direction would be the right one.

The blonde lit a cigarette and inhaled the smoke slowly before blowing it out, eyes narrowing angrily, "What was that, Marimo-head?"

A loud groan was heard from the back seat, "Zoro, why won't you just listen to my directions? We would have been at the center 'bout half an hour ago!"

Zoro's eye twitched as he glared at the ginger haired woman in the back seat, through the rear view mirror, muttering curses a little more under his breath. "You should be glad that I decided to give you a lift there in the first place! And Sanji don't smoke in my car!"

The ginger headed woman smirked and chuckled evilly, "I don't think you really had a choice there. Maybe I'll listen to your complaints after you've paid your debt, ne?"

Completely ignoring Zoro's order not to smoke, the blonde turned around and cooed at her "Oh, Nami-swan's so wonderful when she's reminding of debts."

"Thank you, Sanji-kun" was the simple reply.

_'Fuck it all...'_ Zoro heaved another sigh and glared at the road again; why in the world did he ever move in with these two bloodsucking creatures? _'Maybe because you got yourself kicked out from your previous apartment because of your santoryu training, and maybe because you weren't so fond of living on the streets? …Hmm... That thought was starting to sound pretty good...' _

He took a left turn, wondering where the hell they were, but not speaking his thoughts aloud. No way in hell he'd admit that he had no idea where they were... or where they were heading.

Zoro had known Sanji and Nami for a long time now, 7 years exactly and didn't really mind about having them around...much...maybe a bit… Okay they were driving him mad at the best of times but still, deep down he recalled that they were his friends.

He had used to live out of town when he was a kid, sharing the roof with his best friend Kuina in her fathers' dojo. They were both training to be the best swordsman/woman in the world and always competing (if you can count it as a competition since Kuina always beat him up). Zoro had actually used only two katanas at the time, but after Kuina died he had taken her katana and vowed to become the best. Ever since her death he had trained to use three katanas, mastering the art of Santoryu.

He'd been 12 when he moved out of the dojo and to the city to go to high school. That's where he had met Sanji and Nami.

At the first school day he'd crashed with the blonde and then both of them had broken into a fight, which Nami had stopped and lead them to auditorium (Sanji noodling after her). It turned out that they shared the same classes and somehow they had started to move around together.

It soon became sort of a routine for Sanji and Zoro to fight at every chance they got, Nami to make Zoro owe her for the weirdest things and for Sanji to turn into a noodle whenever his beloved Nami-swan was near. But still even all bickering included, they got along pretty well.

Sanji had once cooked him a birthday cake, even if he was forced to by Nami. And it was Sanji who had found the new dojo for Zoro to train in, which had turned out to be the only safe place to practice with his three swords.

Zoro still used to practice in his home with them, but unfortunately he had cut a wall down, after losing his concentration due to a noodling blonde chef. At first he had managed to hide the fact there was a huge slash in a wall by hanging a cloth on top of it. But when the manger had come to visit him, the tapes had betrayed him and the cloth had fallen to the floor revealing the slash.

To say that the manager was pissed would be an understatement. He was practically breathing fire as he screamed at Zoro. The wall was the main reason why his apartment manager kicked him out. The asshole.

Of course there had been times when he wished he could have kept his mouth shut around his two 'friends'. Like the time he had told them he was in fact gay. Cheese-head would never let him forget that fact and neither would the money-loving ginger head.

He remembered the one time they'd been sitting in Baratie (the restaurant Sanji's father, Zeff, owned) and there had been this pretty good-looking guy working there. Not that Zoro was interested in him, it was a plain fact he had just voiced out. Well, hadn't Nami thought that they would make a cute couple and went to talk the guy up 'for Zoro'. Poor man had quit after he heard Nami's story about how; Zoro hang around the restaurant just to see him, and how he was just afraid to admit his undying love for him. Nami heard later from Sanji that the guy had quit because of 'some stalker'.

Zoro had snapped at Nami calling her a stupid bitch. Nami had added 100 dollars for his debt. Thinking it back, the seven years hadn't been too bad to his recall. If he chose to ignore that 99 percent of the time the two of them annoyed him near to death… they weren't so bad.

He frowned again as they passed the same traffic lights for the third time, was it just him or had they been here already? Must be just him, at least the other two hadn't said anything. He glanced at them before frowning more deeply, Nami and Sanji looked pretty frustrated. _'Well fuck it, don't want a ride to town then don't ask it!' _he thought grumpily…

"Oi, you gay-Marimo, will you stop doing these circles?!" Zoro snapped his head to glare at Sanji who looked seriously pissed.

"I know exactly where we are!" he hissed again and looked around. Nope, he had NO idea where they were.

"Why won't you admit you don't know where we are, and let me help you" Nami sighed from the backseat, looking tired from all this stress.

"Yeah, you should listen to Nami-san!" blonde hissed back at Zoro who growled smacking his fist to steering wheel "Fine! Let's hear you telling where to go!" he yelled glaring at Nami.

"Don't speak to Nami-san like that!" Sanji yelled and turned to face Zoro, fired up about the fact that Marimo had nerves to speak to his loved one like that.

"Oh, and what are you going to do about it, crap-cook!?" Swordsman yelled right back at him.

"You want to fight, shitty-swordsman?!"

"Cheese-head!"

"Moss-brain!"

"Darts-eyebrow!"

Both men were completely caught in their yelling mach, ignoring the traffic lights that had turned to red. Nami rubbed her temples and frowned. _'I am going to have a killer headache at this rate…' _Growling she got ready to punch both of the arguing men to cut out off this pointless match. "Will you two stop-! " Her yell was cut short as she gasped in horror.

"Zoro! Hit the brakes!"

Zoro looked back to the road and paled noticing the red light and a raven haired kid walking over the road...straight across the car's route.

"SHIT!" Hitting the brakes he hoped the car would stop in time. To his misfortune, the car kept going on for too long. _Far _too long.

There was a short cry, and then a couple of thumping sounds as the kid rolled over the car and finally a solid thud when he collided with the ground. The car was dead silent. All three of them slowly turned around and looked back at the black haired boy, maybe 17 or younger, who lay lifeless on the ground. Similar horrified thoughts passed all their minds.

Oh. Dear. God. What had they done?

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**A/N: Err… That was quite short... and yep I drove over Luffy. But still, what did you like? Good? Bad? Leave a review! Oh and please don't flame this! (I have the marshmallows ready here in case you do it…)**


	2. Ch2 What happened?

**A/N: Second chapter is done and fixed! I've had 4 reviews already, wow! Feels so great, big Thanks to those who reviewed! Oh and special thanks for Plushie who had time to read the first and second chap through (and fix them)! But, anyways here's the second chapter of Crashing together, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my laptop and my manga volumes, One Piece and its characters belong to Eiichiro Oda-sensei**

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**Chapter two: What happened?**

Monkey D. Luffy was a very confused person at the moment. Somehow he just couldn't figure out what had happened. He had just a second ago been listening to the music from his mp3 player, had bounced over the road after seeing the light turn green and now... here he lay, on his side with a terrible headache and a very sore body.

He was pretty sure his untamed black hair was in greater mess than usual and that his side would have a huge bruise on it later. He sighed as he saw through his squinted eyes, his straw hat lying next to him.

Luckily it looked unharmed because if it had been torn or something, he would have surely been pissed. His mp3 player also seemed okay, it was still hanging from its strings around his neck, but was no longer playing.

'_What the hell hit me anyway?'_ Deciding to find a reason for his Oh-I've-never-felt-better-in-my-life (NOT!) feeling, he quickly turned his head a little and opened his eyes entirely. That was probably not the best move.

"Ow, ow, ow..." Now he felt like someone had just started to spin the world around him and the bright sunlight hurt his eyes. Groaning he closed his eyes and let his body relax again. He wondered if it would be better just to lay here and not move a muscle. If he was lucky then maybe he would feel better after a while.

-- -- --

"Oh my god... Did we kill him?" Nami whispered as she looked out of the back window, voice shaking a bit.

"I...I...didn't mean..." Zoro looked horrified as he also watched the lifeless looking kid on the ground. His throat felt dry and he was pretty sure he had paled a couple of shades from his normal tan, thinking why hadn't he just kept his eyes on the road?

Sanji looked horrified as well, while searching his pockets to find some calming cigarettes. Where had he put the damned box? Finally finding it, he lit one cigarette with shaky hands. _'I should really stop starting fights with Marimo while he's driving...' _He thought before asking unsurely"…Should we run for it?"

Nami glared at Sanji before chewing her lip nervously. If the kid was a lost case already then she didn't want to stay around the crime scene, but she didn't want to run either. Oh god! They would surely accuse them of murdering the kid! She watched the kid, praying he would do something. Anything!

The three of them nearly jumped as they saw the boy turn his head a little and whine on the ground. For a couple of seconds the car was quiet before Zoro quickly pushed his door open and dashed forwards hoping he hadn't killed the poor kid, and that he was going to be ok. As he reached the boy's side he couldn't help but let out a shuddering sigh of relief.

_'Great, he's breathing alright...'_ he thought feeling himself relax a little as he carefully shook the other's shoulder.

"Hey? Kid, are you with me?" he winced a little as he heard the kid whine again and frown.

"Ow... What are you doing..? That... hurts you know..." was the mumbled reply to Zoros question, who just sighed again in relief. Well at least the kid was fine enough to respond to his question and it was much more than he had first hoped. The crash had really spooked him. He looked up as he heard Nami's steps coming closer.

"Is he okay..?" She spoke quietly, watching the boy worriedly.

Zoro raised an eyebrow at this and looked up to the ginger head, "Nami, I just ran over him. Don't tell me you actually thought he would be okay?"

Nami rolled her eyes at this comment and crossed her arms, "I meant 'is-he-alive' kind of okay, Zoro."

Sanji arrived to hear this conversation and snorted at Zoro. He looked down on the crouching swordsman, lighting another cigarette, "Don't be a smart-ass towards Nami-san, Marimo."

Zoro's eye twitched as he was getting ready to bark right back at the 'dumb-blonde' until Nami hit both of them earning a cry of 'Mellorine' from Sanji and some carefully chosen curses from Zoro. Satisfied at the lumps she had managed to do, she sighed a little and shook her head.

"Will you two quit it already! I've had enough of your fights for one day, Zoro carry him to the car and I'll drive us to hospital!"

The blonde nodded and noodled after her, both entering the car and leaving the grumbling swordsman behind. Zoro took a short glance of the surrounding area spotting the straw hat, which he assumed to be the kid's property. He lifted the hat from ground putting it carefully on his victim's head. He looked down to the kid once more before gently scooping him up into his arms. He felt his anger fade quickly at the minor scrapes on the side of the boy's face. Seriously, he needed to stop retaliating to Nami and Sanji's baiting. ... Somehow, he felt he also needed to, when the kid was conscious again, apologize somehow. He wasn't sure how, but he would need to, that was for sure.

-- -- --

Luffy opened his eyes looking a little miffed, who the hell was this guy? He had just started to drift into sleep when he had lifted him up, reminding him of his aching body. Slowly he looked up to the man carrying him around.

"..What the?" he mumbled and looked accusingly to Zoro, who froze and looked down to those big, chocolate brown eyes.

"You okay, kid?" was the somewhat guilty sounding answer and Luffy blinked up to the man for quite a while before speaking out.

"You have green hair." he stated bluntly before groaning as he squeezed his eyes shut. Damn, why was it so bright right now? Lifting a hand to his face he winced at the action. He had momentarily forgotten that his body ached like hell while he was looking at the unique hair.

"Oi, don't move around, we'll get you to hospital." Zoro said after deciding to ignore the hair comment. He continued to walk to the car while inspecting the boy in his hands. _'He looks okay if I ignore his twitching whenever he moves…Wonder how old he is?'_ he thought before shaking his head and opening the car's door.

He carefully placed Luffy in the back seat, buckled his seatbelt and moved to sit next to him.

"What happened?"

Zoro turned to face Luffy before frowning a little at the question. "You can't remember?"

The boy lowered the hand on his face a little bit so he could see Zoro more clearly. He then looked around in the car spotting the blonde looking curiously at him, and then the ginger head who every once in a while looked at him in the mirror.

"Hey, did you hear what I said?" Zoro asked leaning closer and waving hand in front of Luffy's face, catching his attention.

"Yeah..." he spoke slowly trying not to feed his growing headache "...I don't know what happened. I was walking on the street... and then lying on the ground." He idly scratched his cheek, obviously trying to remember what had happened.

Zoro sat there a little lost at what to do. Should he tell the kid that he had actually ran over him? Or should he just play dumb and not tell him what happened? He found that he didn't need to decide as Sanji spoke out smirking

"Marimo just drove over you."

Luffy, Nami and Zoro all sat there dumb founded. Luffy turned to Zoro and Nami turned to Sanji both crying at the same time "What!?"

Nami couldn't believe Sanji had just said that! The kid was now surely going to sue them and that would cost dearly to Sanji and Zoro. Luffy couldn't understand why the man who had helped him in the car would run over him. I mean, don't people usually tend to try kill someone with a stunt like that?

"It was an accident!" Zoro defended and glared daggers to blonde. Sanji didn't notice he was too busy apologizing to his precious Nami-swan about his stupid comment.

To all of them surprise Luffy blinked a couple of times before smiling happily

"Accident? Oh, okay then!" He grinned as he watched the other's jaws drop, "You're funny." Lifting a hand back to cover his eyes, he sighed a bit.

He did hurt like hell, but the aching seemed to slowly die down, the only places that actually hurt was his head and his side. Besides, it had been an accident so nothing to be mad about there. Like Ace always said, accidents happen.

Zoro looked Luffy skeptically, could the kid really wave something like that away so easily? If he had been drove over, he would have found out where the bastards lived and skinned them alive. But as Luffy did nothing else than grin as he found his hat on his head, and give it a good strong pat, Zoro couldn't help but smile. This kid really seemed like he had already forgiven them.

Luffy on the other hand wasn't thinking anything about the weird green haired guy beside him; he simply wondered when it was time to eat. He frowned a little as he remembering that his fridge was empty and Ace was sending him more money on next week. Oh well, maybe Usopp would loan him some, or at least let him come over to dinner.

Nami looked curiously as the kid patted his hat grinning happily. She smirked at the action and shrugged while she concentrated on driving once again, no way was she going to do the same thing Zoro did. Glad that the kid seemed to be much better, she slowed down a bit. She didn't want to get traffic ticket over speeding, now that the situation didn't seem life threatening.

Luffy started to happily hum some song while looking at the passing buildings and people, every once in a while chuckling at something funny he saw. Zoro raised an eyebrow at this while Sanji smirked at the boy, inhaling his last smoke before flicking the cigarette out of the window. The atmosphere in the car was a lot less tense, now they seemed to know that the kid was okay. He wasn't bleeding out his eyes and what not, and he certainly didn't seem to be yelling in pain, so that was ok, right? He wasn't... well, dead, obviously.

"What's your name, kid?" Sanji asked from the front seat.

Luffy grinned widely as he happily announced, "Monkey D. Luffy, nice to meet you!"

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**A/N: Another short one and it wasn't even so Luffy centric that I planned it to be! Somehow I have this feeling that there is something really wrong with this chap… O.O Sorry, I'll try to concentrate on the next one a bit more, okay? Was this Good? Bad? Bet it was OOC… Reviews are very much appreciated!**


	3. Ch3 And that's final!

**A/N: Whoa! It's done! Sorry for the wait but trust me, doing long days (I mean LONG) and waking up at 4am to work is a really tiring thing to do. Oh! And one more thing, Heh he, I forgot to put in the summary that this is also going to be an UsoKay story. Of course they are just the side kick; Zoro and Luffy are the stars of this one :) This chap is FIXED now!! Thank you Plushie so much!!**

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**Chapter three: And that's final!**

"Kaya!" the pale blonde girl turned at the yell, smiling calmly at the other girl jogging up next to her.

"What is it, Akemi-san?" She looked back to her papers smiling as she crossed another name off the list of people who needed medical treatment. Kaya was a doctor trainee at the city hospital and she was doing pretty well along with the rest of her class. She had wanted to be a doctor for a quite a while now, but only recently had had the chance to start schooling for it since she'd been sick herself a long time. Luckily she had Usopp, and later on Luffy, to cheer her up and give her the strength to get better. Usopp still visited her almost every day and usually Luffy would tag after him until the older teen shooed him away to get some 'alone' time with her.

She chuckled a little as she remembered that the long nosed liar had promised to come over to her place tonight. Now she would be able to cook something for him and if she was lucky she'd be able to start the evening in a good mood after taking care of so many people.

"Hey, Kaya, are you listening to me?" The brown haired one asked, looking a bit irritated as the blonde snapped out of her reverie, smiling a little.

"Sorry, I was a little lost in my thoughts, what were you saying?" She watched amusedly as Akemi snorted and held a patient file in front of her.

"Oh, it's nothing, it's nothing, just a patient file that might interest you, if you would listen to me."

Kaya blinked at her couple of times before taking the file and opening it, eyes widening in a flash as she saw what it contained. "When..?"

"Fifteen minutes ago. I tried to look for you but I didn't know you'd be in E. R."

"Thank you, Akemi-san" Was Kaya's response as she looked at the file once more and then upon finding the room number, she took off to section C.

-- -- --

Luffy sighed as he sat on the hospital bed, obviously miserable and bored. The doctor who had started to examine him said that he would tie him up if he didn't stay still. Of course Luffy being Luffy, had kept moving, poking the doc's equipment and constantly asking 'What's this?', twisting and turning around trying to look everything in the room same time. After five minutes the doctor had broken into a fit of curses and stormed out of the room after finally tying the kid up.

Nami had blinked at the fuming doc and peeked inside the room only to see the raven haired boy lying on the bed looking utterly confused once again. She had set him free only after he had promised to not make more problems. Zoro and Sanji had soon walked in after her and sat down next to the bed, listening to her nagging at Luffy to keep still or else.

Sanji only smiled at this, knowing his love was only worried about the kid but pouted about the fact she rarely showed that kind of attention to him. Zoro rolled his eyes at the nagging, wishing almost desperately for her to stop screeching like the banshee she was. This was a hospital after all; people were trying to rest. He glared at the ginger head before sighing. There was nothing he could do about it as he knew perfectly well that if he opened his mouth, the voice level would probably raise… a _lot_.

"I'm bored!" Luffy whined and threw himself to lie on the bed after Nami's lecture. Pouting miserably he wondered if it was possible to die because of boredom. This was no fun at all! He sighed again as he winced at the contact with the bed. Hnh, stupid side shouldn't be hurting… He looked to the ceiling, feeling annoyed as he grabbed his straw hat from his head and laid it across his eyes. His headache hadn't gone away and the bright hospital light really stung his eyes.

Zoro watched silently, frowning slightly at the boy's sudden change of going from whineing, to grabbing his hat. "Why don't you try sleeping or something?"

"What a unique idea, _Marimo_, but I'm afraid your opinion of having a quality idea isn't the same as normal people's." Sanji sighed as he twitched in his seat twiddling a string in his fingers. He really wasn't used to be without cigarettes and unfortunately you couldn't smoke in hospitals. Due to this, he was certainly feeling a little more on edge than normal. Even a few minutes without his nicotine fix was torture, let alone the hour or so they'd been in here.

"What was that, darts?!"

"You heard me, shitty swordsman."

"You want to fight!?"

Luffy watched the yell match go on before him, smiling curiously at the weird names they were calling each other. They had all introduced themselves while they'd been in the car, but he didn't remember Zoro's middle name being Marimo (which Sanji had called green haired one every time he spoke to him). If he thought more about it, he really couldn't remember either if Sanji's middle name was crap/love-cook/ero-cook/darts (The variations Zoro used the most). He started laughing when he saw Nami roll up her sleeves and punch the two fighters with all her might, knocking them both easily to the floor. Hey, so girls _could _punch! That was so cool...

"This is a hospital you idiots!" Nami screeched, obviously not listening to her own words.

"You're right." Zoro sighed, sitting up and frowning at the lump on his head. Nami blinked. Had Zoro just _agreed _with her? "If I slice the crap-cook open, he might get help and that would ruin my killing." Zoro snorted, smirking evilly. He yelped and rubbed at his head again, which was now even sorer after two more of Nami's hits.

"What are you going to use to slice me up? If you haven't noticed you left your swords home" the blonde snorted as well, getting his revenge easily, brushing himself off as he continued. "...like you could do it even _with_ your swords."

Zoro snapped his head back to Sanji, preparing for another fight until he heard a happy laugh to his right. He turned grumpily toward the noise and to his surprise Luffy, who had been dying of boredom, was laughing merrily at their fight and even Nami was now smirking at the two of them. She shook her head a bit before smiling at the kid.

"I told you they were idiots." She announced as she watched the raven haired kid smile happily. She let out a small, relieved sigh. She had been really worried, but somehow when he smiled like that, she found that she couldn't help but to smile with him. _'He seems so honest and innocent… Heh and he looks like a puppy with those big eyes of his' _She smirked at the last thought. Sanji would have been so jealous if she had voiced it out loud.

"What are you laughing at?" the swordsman snapped at the kid who chuckled quietly before smiling down at him, Zoro still sitting on the floor after Nami's punches.

"You guys." He replied easily, tilting his head to the side and grinning from ear to ear. Zoro blinked a little, frowning and turning his face away quickly as he felt his cheeks begin to burn with embarrassment. Stupid kid... What right did he have to laugh at something that didn't have anything to do with him? Still... as much as he tried to deny it, he could feel the corners of his own lips twitching in a small smile. ... Maybe it had been funnier than it had looked...

"Shut up..." he muttered, before getting to his feet and sitting back down again, ignoring the blonde haired man still sitting on the floor. The group looked up as the door opened and Kaya stepped in.

"Let's see what you have done this time, ne Luffy-san?" She smiled at the kid who turned into curious-mode after seeing the medical equipment again.

-- -- --

"NO! I don't want to!" The trio sitting outside the door raised their eyebrows at the yell and turned to look at the door. The calm little muffled voice was probably Kaya's, since it sounded so calm and determined.

"But I'll die of boredom!"

The three slowly crept up behind the door to hear better what all the fuss was about, and why was Luffy sounding like someone had kicked a puppy…or something.

"Luffy-san, listen to me please? I can't let you go home because you need to be under surveillance for the next 24 hours. From your description about how you feel, you might have a third degree concussion." Kaya sighed and sat on the edge of his bed, watching the boy intently.

"But Ace can-" He started but was hushed as a pale hand rose to his mouth, shutting it effectively.

"Don't try that on me, Luffy-san, I know Ace-san isn't home…" She couldn't suppress her smirk at Luffy puffing his cheeks out and huffing when he was caught lying. "…you really should leave lying for Usopp. You aren't very good at it."

Luffy poked his tongue out before looking at the floor sadly. He wanted to go home, or anywhere but here! Hospitals were so boring and he just didn't like them. He whined a little as he looked up to the doctor trainee. "Please Kaya? I really, really, really don't want to stay here."

"I'm sorry, Luffy, but I can't let you go." The statement was soft, yet final and the boy instantly slumped back on the bed, yanking his hat down to cover his face. He felt so betrayed! Kaya was his friend so he thought she would have understood and helped him to get out of there. Slowly he edged his hat higher to peek under it at Kaya. The girl hadn't moved and smiled sadly at the boy squeezing his hand a little.

"I'm truly sorry about this, you know that don't you?" She whispered calmingly and Luffy swallowed before smiling back at her.

"I know, don't worry!" He chuckled a little and sat back up suddenly a sly smirk spreading to his face, "So, I heard you invited Usopp to your place tonight?"

Kaya blushed bright pink before quickly shooting up and walking towards the door, listening the raven haired boy laugh all the way. She laid her hand on the door handle turning back to watch Luffy once more to her relief he was grinning and a thought crossed her mind.

"I have to go now so stay still and don't go anywhere from the hospital, okay?"

"Gah! I already forgot I have to stay here!" Was the somewhat frustrated answer to her question and she giggled at that. He really didn't pay attention to things for more than five seconds.

"Yeah, sure, laugh at my misery…" He mumbled until he started giggling a little himself.

"We'll see tomorrow about when you get to go home." She replied, opening the door and tripping on the trio eavesdropping the conversation. She blinked as she watched them brush themselves off as their cheeks flared red. She giggled again as she walked away down the corridor, waving at them "Have a nice rest of the day you three." And she went to her locker to pick up her stuff. Smiling she pushed the locker closed as she happily thought; _'After all, I got a good start to the evening.'_

After Kaya had left, Zoro found himself still blushing as they entered the room again. He was a swordsman, damn it! He should have anticipated that would happen and move away when there still was a chance, not to fall face first on the floor, caught in the act. Nami and Sanji were also looking guilty as they grinned ashamed. Luffy just stared at them, blinking quite dumbly at the situation. Hey, he didn't blame them. He'd of done the same thing. What harm was there in listening to things, that's what ears were for, right? Zoro, Sanji and Nami apparently thought different, and just stood there, bumping their fists against their hips, or shifting their eyes nervously around the room.

"So, you can't go home yet?" Sanji was first to speak, deciding to end the awkward silence.

"Nope, stupid concussion thingy… They don't even know if I have it!" was the huffed answer, Luffy not skipping a beat. After all, he couldn't go _home_! What was more horrible than that!? Nami frowned a little at this.

"It's good they keep you in, who knows what would happen if they let you go home."

"But this is so boooring!" He whined loudly, waving his hands wildly as if to emphasize the point of just how _boring,_ it was.

Zoro rubbed his temples with a small frown on his face. _'The kid's whining is giving me a killer headache…' _Out loud he only said, "Can't your parents watch you or something?"

Luffy blinked at this before saying at calm voice, "I don't have parents; they died when I was little."

The trio turned to look at the boy looking at them as if having no parents was something perfectly normal to him. Zoro was first to tear his gaze away from him glaring at the floor mumbling "I- hnh… Sorry..."

"What for? It's not like you drove over them, right?" the simple reply made the swordsman look back at the raven haired boy who still looked like everything was normal, smiling and swinging his legs while leaning forward a little. He studied the kid intently before sighing, he really couldn't tell if that was a fake smile or if he was hurt from the comment. Suddenly he felt even more guilty for running over him since from what he said his parents had also been run over, difference was... Luffy was alive... they weren't.

Sanji merely blinked and watched the kid swing his legs. This guy sure was full of surprises, he thought while idly playing with his lighter, wonder why he is so... Carefree? Nah, that word didn't seem the right one. Happy? Sounded better even though he couldn't understand why he was happy. I mean this Ace (Who the hell was that guy anyway? His brother?) isn't home, he doesn't have parents and he was just ran over by a car. ...Maybe he really _was _sick?

Nami looked at the boy also, except she was feeling a bit more shocked. She still couldn't speak about her mother's death and here was Luffy blurting everything out like it was the most natural thing in the world. She smiled sadly at the kid and wanted to do something to make him feel better… A thought struck her and she jumped up from her chair grinning from ear to ear.

"I know! Since you don't want to stay in the hospital, why don't you come to our place for the night!"

"What!?" Both Zoro and Sanji yelped while Luffy looked dumbstruck and gaped before grinning so wide the cook was sure it would split his face in half.

"You heard me, we can't let the kid die from boredom now, can we?" She said nodding firmly, mainly agreeing because it was _Nami-swaaaan's_ idea. But something about this kid was intriguing him also. Oh yeah, and they _had _run over him, that was certainly cause to help him out. Zoro looked back at the kid and his over wide smile and he couldn't help but to smirk a little, the kid really was too cute. This action though didn't go unnoticed by the ginger head and she smirked as well.

"Kaya-san said he can't go because he needs surveillance, so if he comes over to our place it should be okay. I'm sure you don't mind, right Zoro?" she said as a sly smile replaced the smirk. The swordsman snapped his head to Nami studying her closely, that smile seemed familiar from somewhere… His eyes widened as he remembered where she had last time wore that expression; Baratie and the waiter incident. Oh. Fuck.

"He's not coming over, right Sanji?" Whoa, wasn't he feeling stupid to ask the love-cook to back him up. ... But hell, it was worth a shot, right?

"Shut up, Marimo. If Nami-swaaan wishes it to be so, then I have nothing against it!" The blonde cooed at Nami, turning into a dancing noodle and making Zoro frown. No wonder he hated the bastard so much...

"Nami, he's not coming. Is that clear?"

"Oh, come on, Zoro! I'm sure you want it, too." Nami nudged, smirking and bumping her shoulder against his slyly.

"No I don't." Was the swordsman's blunt response.

"Too bad, because he's coming whether you like it or not."

"Damn it, Nami!"

"I've already invited him, Zoro! It'd be rude to go back on that now."

"He is not coming and that's final!!"

-- -- --

"Whoa! Your house looks cool!" Luffy sparkled as they parked in the driveway. Zoro sighed, depressed and glared at Nami; he should have known he wasn't going to win. It was Nami's house after all.

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**A/N: This was a bit longer than the other two. I know it's not as great as someone might expected (if you did, you were sadly wrong, never expect anything great from me), but I'm quite happy with this chap. It didn't turn out like I had planned it to be… Meh, still satisfied smiles happily NEXT TIME: Some ZoLuness (not much since well… they just met)**


	4. Ch4 Umm Whoops?

**A/N: Wow, chapter three was liked a lot apparently, it got 5 reviews! I'm so happy about it! So sorry, but this chapter isn't going to as good as I hoped it would be… But I won't babble more, here's the Chapter 4 of CT! Enjoy!**

**Chapter 4: Umm… Whoops?**

After they had arrived at the house, Zoro and Sanji had had to literally hold the kid down to stop him from bouncing around the house to inspect everything. After all, he was given the permission to leave the hospital if he rested and was under surveillance, which turned out to be a lot more difficult than they had expected. Luffy was practically a humongous bounce ball and every single time they had let him alone, he would be found upstairs or jumping around the house.

"Luffy! You have to stay still!" Nami screeched after tearing the kid away from the railing of the stairs that lead to second floor.

"Sorry, Nami, your house is just too cool!" was the simple reply as he bounced to the couch grinning happily. This place was so exciting! His own home was only a little apartment at the town's edge and Usopp's place wasn't that great either. Kaya's though, was a huge mansion but he never really had the chance to explore it.

Zoro raised an eyebrow at the kid, sighing exhaustedly. "You think we should drive him back to the hospital?"

"You're going to take me back there?" Luffy asked, wide eyed and staring miserably at the swordsman while turning around in the couch so he could face him directly. He let his eyes slide down on the ground, fidgeting a bit. He'd done something wrong, hadn't he...

"Umm…" the green haired one looked surprised at this sudden change. How had he managed to make the kid go from hyper to depressed so easily?

"Of course we're not driving you back. Just stay still so you won't hurt yourself, ne?" Nami interjected quickly and glared daggers at the other man. Zoro frowned at this before moving to the couch as well, turning the TV on. The raven haired boy glanced curiously at him before smiling a bit to the girl sitting near him.

"I'm fine, but I'll stay still if you say so." Luffy nodded. Nami seemed happy with this answer and walked to the kitchen to keep company with Sanji.

Luffy looked at the swordsman again a little unsurely, maybe if he said he won't make any trouble, he would let him stay? Turning to the TV he thought silently that maybe he really bothered the other. He had argued with Nami and didn't want him there at the first place, he had said that they should drive him back to the hospital and he had driven over him. He frowned at these thoughts. Maybe he should have just stayed in the hospital? Sighing he got up and started to make his way to kitchen where Sanji was already cooking dinner.

"Where are you trying to sneak off to now?" He twitched at the comment and turned around to see Zoro watching him intently.

"I'm not sneaking anywhere."

"Sure you're not..." Zoro's eyes slanted in almost wry amusement before he sighed, "So where are you going then? I thought you said you'd stay still?" He snorted and watched as the kid pouted. He couldn't help but smirk a little, this kid was pretty amusing. Luffy crossed his arms and sighed again.

"I just want to go to the kitchen, okay? I don't want to be a pest." he turned and walked away leaving a very confused swordsman behind. Zoro blinked couple of times looking at the door the raven haired kid had gone through mere seconds ago, before frowning a little. The kid didn't want to be trouble? _'What was that all about?'_ he thought feeling himself get a little miffed about Luffy's actions and soon after he had left, the swordsman got up as well, flicking the TV off. He walked to the kitchen only to notice it was a Luffy-free area and he frowned again.

"Where did the kid go?"

Sanji looked up from his cooking and a newly lit cigarette between his lips. "I thought you were watching him, Marimo?"

"He said he'd come here, crap-cook!" Zoro snapped before sighing and lifting a hand to his head, rubbing it idly. He was getting a headache from this, that was for sure.

"Well, if you haven't gotten blind since I last saw you, you've already realized he's not here and you should be looking for him" was the annoyingly calm reply and Zoro was ready to start a new match until he heard few tumbling sounds and an 'ow' from upstairs. They both shared another sigh and the green haired one slowly walked out of the room to second floor.

"Oi! Kid, where are you?" as silence was the only reply he quickly walked the aisle down checking every room and finally reaching the guest room he opened it peeking in.

"Luffy?" there was a groan and Zoro took that as a sign to carefully step in and flick the light on. At the sight in front of him, he really didn't know if he should be laughing or screaming. There was Luffy, lying half on the floor, one foot still on the bed while his head had somehow gotten through the flipped night tables legs and he was holding the desk light from the table in his hands. His head was also soaked since he had managed to tip the water glass from the table on to his head. Zoro blinked and Luffy blinked, both frozen to the places they were situated in. Luffy offered the older man a sheepish smile and an unsure laugh.

"Umm… Whoops?"

That seemed to break the moment and the green haired one came back to life again.

"The hell you're doing?" He snapped even though his voice sounded more than amused and after a couple of seconds he burst out, laughing his head off. He leaned to the door to get some support but looking at the raven haired kid made him laugh even harder. The kid wasn't even trying to move! Just laying there with a water glass on his head! After a minute he calmed down enough to notice Luffy was pouting and blushing fiercely while muttering some curses under his breath.

"Heh, you alright?" he asked still chuckling a little, making the other raise an eyebrow at him.

"Do I look alright to you?" was the simple reply as Luffy shook his head, making the glass fall to the floor and water flying everywhere from his drenched hair. He sighed as he carefully put the desk light down and tried to untangle himself from the blanket and night desk which was pretty difficult from the position he was in. Sighing again, he closed his eyes and hung his head letting himself go limp again, his headache had gotten back worse than before and he was feeling also a bit sick. _'The hell am I doing indeed…?'_

"Oi, is something wrong?" Zoro watched the kid go limp and frowned as he hurried next to him checking his temperature and when finding it normal he looked down on him again. "Do you feel sick?"

"No, just tired." '_Like hell I am, I feel sick like something that died and was brought back to life again.'_ He thought and shook his head to emphasize the 'no' only making it hurt even more. He winced a little at the movement and it didn't go un-noticed by the swordsman, who narrowed his eyes in mild concern.

"Maybe we really should get you back to the hospital, you look a little pale."

"I'm fine, just tired!" the raven head smiled while his stomach made a loud roaring sound making him blush a little and laugh embarrassedly "… and hungry."

Zoro cocked an eyebrow at this before shrugging and helping him up again. "Sure sounds like it."

The kid nodded and finally managed to get himself free of the blanket getting up. _'Whoa! What the?' _He thought as he swayed grabbing the other for support, blinking couple of times tightly clutching onto the swordsman's arm. Okay, if he hadn't felt that great while lying on the floor, he certainly wasn't feeling better standing up.

"You're not fine, right?" he heard the question and slowly turned to look at the green haired one, who looked pretty skeptical.

"Mm, I don't feel good..." He admitted and let his hand fall away from Zoro's as he glared at the floor, mumbling his answer out while swaying again."Do I have to go back?"

Zoro blinked at the other and put his hands back to his pockets sort of hoping the kid would have hold on to him a little longer. Realizing his thoughts he felt his cheeks warm and quickly shook his head. "Just lay on the bed or something, I'll go grab your food and bring it up here." He looked at the kid's soaked hair and added "… And a towel"

"You will?" the raven haired boy laughed happily before remembering that he was probably troubling him. "But I don't want to be a trouble..." Luffy's face went from utter joy to miserable in less than a second making the other frown heavily.

"What are you saying again? You don't trouble me." he thought this a while wondering if Nami or Sanji had said anything to the other making him feel like this "How did you even figure that in the first place? Che, if Nami or Sanji said anything to you just ignore them. They're idiots."

"Well, you didn't want me to come here, and you wanted to take me back to the hospital and you drove over me." Luffy twiddled his finger a little while still looking at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Umm…" the older teen idly scratched his head and started also to stare at the floor sifting on his feet a bit. _'Well, I did do those things… And I haven't been that nice to him…' _groaning he looked back to the other.

"You're right, I said those things and I drove over you. But it has nothing to do with troubling me, trust me. If I was burdened by your appearance, you would have known it already."

Luffy looked up, pondering this a while before smiling and nodding again, forgetting that fast movements weren't a smart thing to do. He swayed dangerously, making the other quickly grab him to make sure he wouldn't fall over.

"Yeah, let's get you to bed now… And no moving around, until I get back here." Zoro sighed and helped the kid to lie down and fixing the desk back up. He quickly fetched a towel from the closet on the corner, throwing it to the other. He glanced at the raven haired boy once more before walking out and sighing as he closed the door. He slowly walked to the kitchen to see the food ready on the table and Nami looking at him questiongly.

"Where did you leave Luffy?"

"Made him stay in the bed, he wasn't feeling too good."

Nami frowned at this before smirking a little, sharing a quick glance with Sanji. "Oh, sure he wasn't feeling well."

"You just want to keep him on his back." the cook snickered making Zoro blush.

"I do not!" he snorted and took two plates before heading out again.

"Not going to eat with us?" Nami's smirk grew even wider as she saw the swordsman twitch.

"Like I'd want to eat with you two vultures…"

"Don't call Nami-swan a vulture, you shitty-swordsman!"

"I'll call her what I damn well want you crap-cook!" He yelled back slamming the door closed and huffing a little on the hallway before walking back to the guest room. To his surprise Luffy was still laying on the bed, looking almost as he was sleeping until he jumped up almost drooling as the food got closer.

"Food! I'm starving!" He cried happily and snatched the plate from the older teen's hands, starting to inhale his food, this making the other blink before slowly sitting down.

"Wow…" It was like watching an alligator eat a zebra, or something, as the swordsman thought it. He looked half fascinated, half disgusted as the kid finished his plate in a time he thought would be impossible for any other human being. He blinked again as the other looked his plate hungrily.

"Are you going to eat that?" Luffy asked hopefully making the other raise an eyebrow at the question.

"You didn't have enough yet?"

"Nope!" he said smiling brightly, so Zoro just sighed and offered his plate to the hungry raven head and watched as it was gone as well in mere seconds. He smiled a little at the other and took the plates away, putting them on the floor as Luffy yawned and rubbed his eyes. Suddenly the swordsman remembered the question he had been wondering earlier.

"Say, how old are you?" He wondered aloud as he glanced at the other lay down and turn on his side so he could see him better.

"Mm, I'm seventeen now, you?" He grinned widely even though he was feeling tired, this was just so cool! His new weird green haired friend didn't think he was trouble and he brought him food! Now _that _was cause to like someone, indeed.

"Hnh, I'm nineteen…" He smirked a little as he looked at the kid again. "And here I thought you'd be fifteen or something…"

"I don't look that young." Luffy said, puffing his lightly red tinted cheeks out and pouting fiercely.

"Sure you don't…" Zoro smirked wider as the other's pout grew even bigger if possible. _'He really is too cute…' _

This comment making the other glare at Zoro a bit before yawning again and blinking rapidly. The swordsman noticed this and rose up stretching a little.

"You should sleep."

"I'm not tired yet." Luffy replied, yawning again.

"Oh? Then why are you yawning?" the older one asked, raising his eyebrow at the poor attempt to stay up a while longer.

Luffy pouted again and crossed his arms, miffed that he was caught for the second time that day. Slowly stretching as well, he winced as his side reminded itself at the movement, groaning a little he let his eyes fall closed once again. He tried to muffle a yawn but in the end it escaped and he sighed and laid down to his back murmuring quietly. "Mm, maybe I'm a little tired."

"So sleep then." the swordsman snorted picking the plates up and walking to the door. He glanced at the almost sleeping kid smiling a little flicking the light off. "Night, kid."

"…Night."

He closed the door yawning a little and heading down to leave the dishes in the kitchen when he saw Sanji leaning on the railing, smirking slyly.

"So, any luck with the kid yet?" He asked, waggling his swirly eyebrow in a suggestive fashion.

"Shut up!" Zoro responded hotly, feeling his cheeks warm again as he hurried to the kitchen leaving a snickering Sanji behind.

Nami looked at the green haired man from the couch and smirked when Sanji moved to sit next her. She couldn't help but giggle as she heard Zoro cursing and clanging the dishes. "He's so obvious…"

"It's NOT what you think it is!" They heard the swordsman yell from the kitchen making both the cook and the ginger head burst out laughing.

Luffy twitched a little at Zoro's yell waking momentarily and frowning heavily. He had the strangest feeling he had forgotten something important but couldn't quite put his finger on it. He sighed and shook his head, turning on the bed. He'd remember it eventually.

-- -- -- -- --

At the other side of the town, in a little apartment there was one annoyed meow heard as a light brown cat clawed at the cupboard, seemingly very annoyed. He thought Luffy said he'd be back by evening! His blue nose twitched slightly at the smell of food but the cupboard was shut tight. He sighed while jogging to the door looking at it a bit sadly before turning and going back to clawing the cupboard again. It finally opened and he purred satisfied as he knocked the cat food box over and started to munch the dry food happily down. After finishing his dining, he glanced at the door annoyed before curling up against, it meowing softly. Luffy would hear about this, that he would make sure...

Indeed, Chopper wasn't a very happy cat at the moment

**-- -- -- -- --**

**A/N: Planned to make it longer, funnier and fluffier… But I still somewhat like how this turned out. Mweh, Chopper turned out to be a cat! Oh, Luffy isn't abandoning poor Chopper or anything; sometimes you can simply forget things like that… Happened to me once, but our cat was okay… –sifts a little nervously- I know the fifth chap will be fun to write and I'll try to update this on next weekend! Still, what did you like about this chapter? Or did you hate it? Leave a review and let me know what you think! **


	5. Ch5 Everything would soon change

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A/N: At first I want to thank Loreto W for her review, it was really the greatest reason I got this chapter finished and made me remember that I like this story a lot. Got 700words written from one sit since the review was so inspiring to me. Secondly, I want to apologize because of 2 things: Sorry it took, and sorry it's not better. I've had 6month's break you know? -nervous laugh- There, let's get this chapter started!

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, it belongs to the ever so awesome Eiichiro Oda-sensei, If I owned One piece, I wouldn't write this fic.**

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**Chapter five: Soon everything would change**

Next morning Luffy woke up feeling way sorer than before it making him wince while he was lying on the bed, this wasn't good. Sighing he got up, took his hat and slowly walked to the mirror on the other side of the room, tugging his shirt off him, revealing maybe a little lanky appearance, but all the same good and toned abs, as well with a huge bruise, size of an Australia on his side. The sight made the kid blink few times, carefully touching it and yanking his hand away flinching at the contact. Damn, it hurt way more than the day before!

Sighs again carefully putting the shirt back on, it'd be fine if he avoided all contact with it, stays silent for a moment listening and hearing some noises down stairs. He places his hat to his head, but after a moment of pondering let's it hang from the string, takes few steps towards the door, noting he's swaying. "Whoo... dizzy much..?" chuckles a little not all that worried about it, opening the door, and hurrying towards the stairs.

"Wha-what??" the swordsman asked in intelligent fashion dodging the kid bolt towards the kitchen, holding a plate with him, he was looking the blur called Luffy frowning a little "...Kid, I have your breakfast." Blinks at the quick stop at the down stairs before he laughed a little seeing the kid hurry back up.

"Naa, why didn't you say it before? I'm starving!" Luffy chuckled merrily taking the plate and standing on the stairs for a moment, before he hopped to the railing and started to eat and surprisingly not inhale. No matter how hungry he was, the constant soreness and dizziness, made his appetite disappear. If Zoro would've know the kid better he would've been way worried, but instead he just leaned on the railing watching the kid for a moment before snorting

"It's kinda hard to inform you when you bolt 100/kmh past me" he couldn't help but to smile a little inspecting the other for a moment "So how are you feeling? Better already?" The raven head just nodded still eating, and waving his feet a little.

"Yeah I'm good as new" He grins a little to the other nodding as to confirm, before going back to finish the delicious breakfast, looking the floor, knowing the other was watching him, he didn't want to worry them, he was just dizzy and sore and it was normal after the earlier.

"...Okay" the green haired man slowly shrugged, the kid looked okay and energetic enough to him. But still he couldn't shake off the feeling the other wasn't feeling the greatest. Looks the other for a moment longer before smiling a little, no matter how much he worried over the kid only after a day, he really wished the other would stick around. Even if he was a little too energetic and annoying...and tiring...and headache giving.. He was still cute and that forgave a lot with the happy attitude. With these thoughts he slowly turned his eyes away from the other watching to down stairs raising his eyebrow seeing a familiar orange and yellow flash past the railings as if to hide. "Idiots, I saw you a time ago" He snorts, smirking seeing Sanji and Nami pop out under the stairs and walk them up.

"Yeah yeah, shut up" Nami waved her hand at the other, before turning to Luffy smiling "So you're better that's great" Nods a little more to herself wondering if they should drop the kid back to his home now. He kinda liked the kid, so she'd rather keep her here longer, but even if they got him back home, they could still meet again. It wouldn't be final or anything.

Sanji was thinking much like the orange haired as stuffed his hands to his pockets, watching the raven haired kid, noting some carefulness on the movements frowning a little to himself, maybe the other was fine, but he couldn't be quite sure. The cook shruged a little to shake the feeling off seeing the kid grin, _'weird I don't usually worry like this over a stranger... but on the other hand, he's not a complete stranger' _"Saa kiddo, are you feeling like going home?"

"Mm, yeah, since I'm already feeling better, thanks for letting me stay here!" He had finished his food a moment ago, placing the plate carefully to the railing, before smiling widely and sliding the railing down, hopping off it before falling to his feet on the carpet, wincing internally at the thump. His side was acting up and head starting to hurt again. Shakes it off grinning back to upstairs and blinking seeing all three of them in frozen positions of dashing after him "...You're all weird" he stated bluntly before laughing a little at the veins popping from the others head, turning around and walking to the kitchen to get something to drink, hoping it would ease the headache. He stoped, blinking few times slowly, the kitchen looked cool! The side forgotten in less than a second, the kid bounces happily to the cupboards, giving them a long look before smiling and going through them all finding the glasses from the last cupboard he looked from. Walks to the sink, filling the glass with water, drinking it all down before getting some more idly pondering if they'd want to hang around later with him.

-- -- -- --

Zoro wandered off to his own room, or more like escaped from the other two creeps, but he would never admit it, shutting the door tight "Damn darts and witch" Can't help but to mutter while walking to his bed yawning a little, glancing Kuinas picture on the desk, face serious and frowning a little letting his eyes slide to his three katanas, and giving them a stroke absentmindedly. He was getting careless, letting his focus stray all the time from training, to fight with Sanji and Nami, and even let it broke so bad he had driven over some innocent kid... But somewhat he was glad it was Luffy he'd ran over, oh wait that sounded so wrong, well dammit. He needed to get himself back together, sighs a little at his own thought and frowns more heavily. He flopped to the bed and listened the silent house, or what it used to be, it seemed like the kid was having fun, at least the laughter was loud enough to carry to his room. Was that a crash? _'Did something crash? ...oh Nami's screeching, Luffy must've broken something...' _He chuckled a little at the thought, anything to get the two to lose their minds was cool with him, it wasn't like he would have to pay for it anywa- Hears few stomping sounds and twitches as his door's slammed open.

"Zoro! Luffy broke my coffee cup, I'll add 20 bucks to your debt!"

"Wait a second I didn't do anything!" Zoro sat back up yelling to the now open door and Nami, who was looking rather pissed, standing in the doorway.

"It's your fault in the first place to not keep your eyes on him!" She yelled back shaking her fist to the other, it had been her favourite coffee cup!

"Oh, Shut up! It's just a freakin' cup!"

"Don't tell Nami-swan to shut up, Seaweed brain!" Sanji joined the fight from the kitchen while he was getting the sweeper out of the closet to clean the mess. He got ready for share the yelling to Luffy as well, the kid being the one to break his precious Nami-swans cup, but ending up blinking, seeing no shards on the floor. He looks to the kid slowly walking towards the kitchen table, as in a mission, hands full of shards and coffee cups pieces. "Oi, I was going to clean it..." He blinks again putting the mop back seeing the raven head shake his head fiercely.

"No no, I broke it so I'll clean it", he smiles widely putting the shards to the table "..It could be glued back together?" He pokes the pieces few times, turning back to Sanji looking a little worried, and the cook didn't like the look, it didn't look natural on the kid.

"Saa, maybe.." He walks over stuffing his hands to his pockets, inspecting the pieces before smiling a little "Yeah I don't think it's impossible. We just have to see what Nami-san says."

"What I say about what?" Nami said stepping in to the kitchen still looking rather miffed about the whole mishappening. She was slowly calming down and placing her hands to her hips, while glancing at Luffy before sighing a little.

"..the cup. It's not completely shattered...maybe we could glue it back together?" the kid shared a short glance with Sanji before poking the pieces again and mumbling quietly "I didn't mean to brake it..."

The orange haired woman gave Luffy a small cold glance before stomping over, talking about the cup didn't make her mood any better, she watches the pieces on the table for a while. Well, it wasn't that badly broken... 6 pieces is all also few shards. She sighs again, the cup was important to her, she had gotten it from Bellemere when she'd been a kid, but there was nothing to do.

"Nami-san? You couldn't use it anymore, but it'd still be whole again" Sanji offered after a small silence, smiling gently to Nami.

"..." The orange headed woman turned to look at the two focusing her eyes on Luffy and sighing a little before waving her hand. "Yeah, yeah, I just liked the cup but, accidents happen, right?" It would be really petty from her to not forgive Luffy, who had shrugged the whole driving over thing with the same sentence. She smiles a little looking at the pieces taking few to her hand, even if it was broken it was still important and worth of repair.

"Really?" Luffy carefully asked and seeing Nami nod and even smile back at him, he can't help but to let out a small sigh of relief before grinning "Sorry Nami, I'm a bit clumsy" he laughed a little nervously.

"Oh really? Who would've ever thought?" She responded raising her eyebrow a little before smacking Luffy over head, but not so violently as usually when punching people. Sort of friendly punch. "I'll just make Zoro pay the 50 bucks of it" she chuckles a little ruffling Luffy's hair. "Don't worry about it"

"I thought it was 20", Zoro said annoyed making all three of them nearly jump, no one noticing the swordsman to sneak in.

"It was the first offer, but you turned it down" Nami shrugged smirking a little getting back to her speciality, blackmail.

"I never took any offers in!!"

"Ah, that makes it 60 dollars" She sang and giggled satisfied seeing the green haired man gape trying to find something to say, but failing not wanting the debt to get any higher.

"Nami-swans so wonderful when she's blackmailing the Marimo brain!" Sanji cooed next to her making Luffy laugh and Nami smile happily thanking for the compliment, but no one seemed to notice this all got Zoro to even worse mood, muttering curses under his breath.

"Damn witches and crap-cooks..." The swordsman wasn't pleased at all, so to keep the debt on the current price just stepped away from the kitchen going to the living room and flopping to the couch. Maybe a nap would get him to a better mood... But somewhat napping didn't seem possible, having the feeling someone kept looking at him. He opens one eye lazily and glaring at Luffy before blinking "What do you want?"

"I can pay the cup next week", he nodded smiling before twiddling his fingers a little, he hadn't been a trouble last night, but this wasn't certainly getting the other to a better mood about him.

"Kid, I don't need the money, okay?" he snorts crossing his arms frowning to himself in thought "Besides the bitch would've figured something else to make me pay for, the blackmailing witch she is" he shrugs sitting up and looking at the other for a small moment "So when do you want to go back home? I'll give you a ride then."

Luffy opened his mouth to answer a realisation dawning to him, making him throw his hand to his hair, forgetting quick movements weren't still the smart thing to do, then taking a step to side to stay up. Looking quite panicked while mouth moving but no sound was coming out.

"What, what is it?" Zoro asked frowning standing up at the sway "Oi, sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine! Aaah! Chopper's going to be so mad at me!" The kid couldn't help but to cry out before taking a complete turn towards the door. "I said I wouldn't stay long... He's so pissed, or lonely, did I leave any food to him? I bet I didn't..."

"Oi oi, slow down, what is it?" the swords man asked again trotting after the kid, he'd thought Luffy lived alone?

"My cat, Chopper, I knew I forgot something!" The raven haired one looked back at Zoro looking a little desperate before hurrying to his shoes kicking them on, it wasn't like him to forget his friends like that, this was worrying, he must be sick...oh wait, he kinda was. Well that's cool then.

Zoro watched the other panic himself for a moment before shaking his head and grabbing the car keys from the key cabinet and yelling over his shoulder: "Hey idiots, I'll drop Luffy back home!"

"What? I want to come too!" Nami yelled back hurrying to the hallway and blinking as the door was already slammed closed, frowning a little. " Fine! Have your ALONE TIME with him then!" She sang at the door and to her joy she heard few curses behind the door.

"So Marimo's making his move, eh?" Sanji smirked slyly, poking his head over Nami's and looking at the door too.

"Yeah I bet he does, he just LOVES to have Luffy to himself!!"

The two blinked watching the door open enough to show Zoro's rather not pleased but a bit flustered face "Will you two shut up??"

"No." They stated simply dodging a shoe flying at them before Nami fell in to a fits of giggles and Sanji was ready to start a fight for dangering his swan.

"Zoroooo! I need to get back home!"

"Oh yeah", with that Zoro was off, leaving the two inside to laugh their heads off.

-- -- -- --

Luffy sat in the front seat next to Zoro, feeling slightly nervous, it wasn't that usual from him, making him finally admit he must've hit his head harder than he'd like to believe. He idly watched the houses fly past as Zoro drove calmly and seemingly focused on the road in front of him. The kid looked at the swordsman for a moment before turning back to look out of the window reasoning Chopper had to be fine, it was just one night after all, but the blue nosed cat had sneaked his way to his life so quickly he really hated to leave it by himself.

"So am I driving to the right way?" Zoro asked after a long silence, it starting to feel uncomfortable in a while.

"Huh?" Luffy turned to blink at Zoro before inspecting the scenery for a moment, looked familiar to him "Turn right from here" He nodded surely.

Zoro wasn't questioning it, but in his mind he rose his eyebrow at this following the directions, (he'd never admit it to Nami), and frowning slightly, he knew these areas, they weren't the greatest. "You sure it's the right way?" He gave the kid a glance before focusing on the driving again, even though the kid was lanky and didn't have all perfect clothes he'd somewhat thought he'd live in more calmer place.

"Yeah." The raven head nods again throwing a curious look towards Zoro before grinning a little "Naa, I'm not really all that rich and since Ace's doing some stuff we can't afford a better place", he shrugs a little looking at the few familiar faces on the almost empty streets "But home's always home, and it's not that bad." He smiles a little more softly, probably more to himself, as Zoro listened carefully

"Okay then..." The swordsman hummed in thought, noting familiar faces as well very now and then and blinking a little _'Does everyone I beat up end up here?'_

"You can drop me here", Luffy nodded a little turning to the green haired man grinning widely "I'll take a short cut from that alley, it's the quickest route", he explained smile still plastered to his face and after a small while of pondering he chuckled: "And thanks for running over me, yesterday was really interesting!"

Yet again Zoro couldn't help but to blink at the kid's logic before smiling a little. "Hah, my pleasure" ...why everything he said ended up sounding wrong? He shrugged to his thoughts and noticed the other half bolt out of the car, placing the old straw hat better to his head.

"Naa, let's catch around! Thanks, and tell my thanks to Nami and Sanji too", the raven head smiled widely closing the door, which made Zoro do a weird jerk towards it and roll the window down.

"Wait! What if we want to...contact you." He watched the spot where the kid had been a moment earlier, but now already running the alley way down. Must be really in hurry, he thought as he turned the car around and started to get his way out of there. _'I should've asked the number earlier...' _he squeezed the steering wheel a little frowning slightly "Now where was home again?"

-- -- -- --

Luffy reached the yard in less than a minute digging his pockets to find the keys to get inside, stopping feeling a gun on his back, he frowned a little, they've got to be kidding, not today.

"Mr. Monkey. Crocodile's not too happy with you, you still haven't paid the debt to him" a cold voice spoke behind him and the kid listened closely...1...2...4.. four persons footsteps. He slowly turned around to glare the agents, slowly crossing his arms before speaking at a strange serious voice, not expected by a mouth of someone so carefree and happy.

"I have no idea how many times do I need to make it clear, I'm not paying anything, since I didn't do anything. Ace hasn't done anything. Tell Croc to leave me alone." He spoke out slowly and clearly, like explaining it to a little kid, making the woman next to the agent with the gun frown very annoyed.

"Oh shut up you pest", she hissed, she had heard about this kid, he was surprisingly known among the organization, but she had no idea why some agents didn't want to get near him_. 'Skinny little kid, ooh how scary'_ , she snarled in her mind twirling her blond hair and giving a glance to her partner who looked just as annoyed.

"We aren't here to play, brat, do you have the money or shall we take you with us to him?" He waved the gun a little, the kid's eyes follow the pistols pipe almost fascinated before he grinned.

"No deal with that." And everything happened quicker than the agent could realise, he distantly felt the gun drop from his hand as it was grabbed. He let out as a small yelp feeling his bones move a little under the grip, before eyes widening seeing the other crash his head against his. Then everything turned just as black as the kids hair.

"You freakin BRAT!!" The woman screeched and Luffy quickly moved towards to her seeing the rest 3 start to dig their guns and what else out, he grunted in his mind, head bang, not smart. His head felt like cracking, the headache from before bolting back at light's speed. He grunted a little ignoring it and kicking his knee to the blond woman's stomach hearing a pained whine from her, before throwing her gun away._ '...please, no bullet holes this time...' _He thought and felt a small whine come from the back of his throat, oh yeah, the side was killing him too, why couldn't he keep remember these kind of stuff?

"Who wants to be next?" Two agents to go, after that he could crawl to bed. The kid wavered a little and eyes widened a little hearing a gun fire, but this time the fact he lost his balance saved his shoulder from a bullet. Quickly he took support from the ground before dashing towards the shooter, he saw the surprised look and a desperate yelp before he'd punched him out the count, blood in his kuckles from the others face. The last agent stood a few feet away shaking a little and backing away and screamed as Luffy lifted his look from the ground and glared at him. The agent instantly droped his gun but some reflexes kicking in as he was feeling his phone vibrate on his pocket. It must be boss... he blindly dived forward and punched the kid, blinking at his success but the excitement in his face disappearing and turning to fear seeing the kid just grin, before grabbing the poor agent from the collar of his coat lifting him up in the air.

"Tell Croc that I'll keep on fighting, will you?" Luffy asked feeling a very small trail of blood drip down his face, seemed the guy had hit his brow with a ring.

"I-I-I wi-will!" the agent squeaked horrified, cold sweat running down his face and the red hair that was usually combed neatly behind was a mess and the hair gluing to his face as the sweat made it sticky. He grabbed the kid's hands trying to pry him off legs kicking a little in the air.

"...get the other away from here too." The raven headed nodded dropping the man to the ground to gather the rest. The agent's eyes slid to the gun on the ground making a move for it, but to his failure Luffy got there before him and knocked the last agent out.

"Saa.. Well, get them away when you wake up" He looked the agents for a moment, before wiping the blood off his face, dumping all the guns to the trash can. He was heading to his house, opening the door and slowly walking the stairs up. He could hear Choppers miffed meow behind the door as he turned the key in the hole, and he sighed a little smiling at the cat. "Sorry I took so long, things happened", he bend down to pet Chopper and got scratched, it made him blink before walking to the kitchen and getting water for him and Chopper. He glanced the cat as he moved to the bedroom and flopped to the bed, he rubbed his temples idly, the headache was getting worse, and he didn't feel great either. The kid laid there for a long time before he blinked his eyes open feeling a spiky tongue on his hand, watching the light brown cat lick the scratch looking guilty as ever. "Ne it's okay Chopper" He smiled widely and petted the cat turning to his good side and closing his eyes again. He was so tired, and his head was killing him, maybe it'd be better later.

Chopper kept cleaning the scratch from earlier before calming and cuddling next to Luffy, a little worried from his owner. He waited patiently seeing the other fall asleep, before inspecting the kid closely. Animals sense things, and the cat couldn't help but to sense the kid was tired, hurt and also...Maybe it was paranoid, but... Chopper looked past Luffy to the door and flattened his ears, he had the feeling that soon everything would change. Good or bad, he had no idea yet.

-- -- -- --

Meanwhile across the town Nami was eating dinner with Sanji, finishing it, before sighing and walking to the phone, dialling a familiar number, looking the towns map. She waited patiently as the phone rang few times before she heard a grunt: "So, where are you? I have map here, we want to use the car today too."

"I'm not lost DAMMIT!!" she heard the others voice yell to the phone before hearing the phone click ending the conversation. She couldn't help but to giggle as she watched Sanji smirk at the doorway.

"We should take a taxi to get to the center don't you think?" He asked lighting a cigarette and stepping out of the house, breathing the smoke greedily.

"Yeah... I hope he has enough gas in the car to get back here", she chuckled a little taking a scarf with her.

"Mm", Sanji nodded pondering it a while as they stood next to the street, waving at a taxi which slowed down giving them a ride, Sanji opened the door for Nami going inside from the other door and seemingly remembering something "...I'm never going to get out again at 3am to get him and his car back home since he couldn't find his way back..."

* * *

**A/N: That was a bit longer than the previous chapters and also, in this chapter we're finally getting to the plot. This was also my first fight scene I ever wrote so please be kind about it. It will get a little darker in future, but next chap I'm going to write, will have some stuff happening. But it might take few weeks, school is pure torture for a senior student -sighs-**

**Anyway! Sorry for the blab xD The same old; Did you like it, did you hate it, leave me a review and let me know! Reviews make me write! **


	6. Ch6 Under that big grin

**A/N: Wow... another chapter o.O Ah, about this, it has darker bits in it and a very little amount of Luffy, but this chapter is needed for the story -nods- So without any longer talking, here's the next chapter of CT! Enjoy! -big grin-**

**Chapter six: Under that big grin**

It had been over a week since Zoro had dropped Luffy back to his home and so far he hadn't heard any news from the kid. He couldn't help but to admit it bugged him a lot. Even if he'd had the kid as his company for a day, he missed him, also he was worried seeing where he lived. He took a habit to drive around the town at days after training and work. He'd gotten a job the next day the kid had disappeared from his car, at a car mechanics down town, the job wasn't the best, but payment was worth it, when he didn't have to pay the parts of car he broke. Somehow when he drove around the town he wondered what was the other doing, and today when he had agreed to go shopping with Sanji and Nami the silent question was thrown in to air by the ginger headed woman.

"So, have you heard about Luffy? Did you ask his number?" She spoke blankly as she went through the clothes on the rack in front of her, she didn't like how, even though she tried to sound carefree, her voice betrayed her with slight anxiousness. She listened the silence for a moment before turning to Zoro and eyeing her curiously, she noticed Sanji to pay more attention to the conversation now as well.

"No, not a thing", the swordsman said frowning a little annoyed, like he didn't want to hear from the grinning raven head. "...I never got his number either, he bolted out of the car in such a hurry."

"Shoulda known Marimo would scare him away", Sanji snorted looking around the shop a little and following Nami out of it.

"Shut up, he was in hurry is all!" Zoro snapped back, turning after the two and glaring daggers at Sanji, if he was up to a fight, it would be okay to him. He distantly made a note to himself about how he and Sanji had increased at worrying state few days after Luffy's departing, but he'd shrugged it off by coincidence.

"Was just saying" The cook calmly responded, he knew it would annoy Zoro, wondering a little himself if the kid was okay, he had seemed like the kind of person to keep in contact and outgoing enough to run in to by mall or town. He lit a cigarette as they stood on the street and Nami wondered if they should go to eat or try to find some more clothes.

"Yeah yeah, darts", the green headed man said and looked around with getting tired of the constant fighting. His eyes drooped, he was tired, nap would do good, but since he'd agreed to come with the two he had to stay awake.

"Don't start to fight again, please?" Nami sighed quietly before waving them to follow her to the coffee place few blocks away, one day without her hitting the two to stop their pointless fights, that's all she asked. She opened the door and smiled to the woman at the counter walking to a table to sit down, taking her shopping bags from Sanji and placing them next to her. From the corner of her eye she noted Zoro walk straight to the counter still obviously in bad mood. She hadn't meant to ask it out loud but seems like her mouth betrayed her "You think Luffy's okay?"

"Hmm? I'm sure the kid's fine", Sanji answered soon after the question smiling to Nami "If he was okay after being ran over by Marimo, he should be fine." He nodded once while he dug his wallet out of his pocket, but one thing that made him wonder was Zoro's weird behaviour, the swordsman almost seemed to be worried, he couldn't help but to think where was Luffy living then if the seaweed brain was worried. "Saa, a latte for you Nami-san?"

"Yeah, thank you Sanji-kun", she smiled nodding gratefully and relaxing on the chair a little, looking out of the window and noting that when Sanji left, Zoro got back with his black coffee.

"I still have no idea how you can drink that poison down", she made a small face at the others cup and giggled at the weird grumbled answer of witches and their weird tastes.

Zoro looked out of the window in bored fashion and yawning widely, hoping the coffee would keep him awake, one good thing about the drives around the town in hope to see Luffy was that he had finally started to remember the route back home. He watched people walk past the busy shopping street, kids were laughing or whining how they wanted one toy to their parents, and trendy young adults walking in their high heels with other girlfriends, and few couples here and there. But something stuck out of the street figure, a blonde woman and a dark haired guy with suits on, even though it was still quite warm, end of the summer before fall. The guy also had a bandage over his head even thought he obviously tried to hide it with a hat, and the woman seemed a little nervous, but cold and distant all the same. He frowned a little, it seemed they were waiting or searching for someone.

"Oi did you hear me?" Sanji asked for the fifth time from the green haired and seemingly getting his attention watching the other snap his head away from the window and blink at him.

"What?" Zoro yawned glancing back out and frowning a little seeing the two had disappeared, why he didn't know. Basically he just didn't like their looks, nothing good comes with the black crows like them.

"What the hell are you staring at?" The blonde asked raising his curly eyebrow and trying to look out of the window now too, but the two were gone.

"Probably nothing", was the annoyingly calm reply from the swordsman.

"I said were going back after these, Nami-swan has shopped enough", the annoyance from the start turned into a sweet cooing when he got to the ginger heads name making the mentioned sigh before smile a little.

"Thank you Sanji-kun."

"Oh Nami-swans so wonderful when she's thanking me-"

"But put a lid on it", she said bluntly and smiling sweetly. Finishing her latte she got up, before she looked at Zoro's coffee. "You should finish that so we can get going."

"..You can go ahead, I'll walk back", the swordsman nodded once, his earrings making a quiet sound (/sanastot/laajahaku/helistä tinkling maybe?).

"You sure?" Nami asked blinking a little, Zoro trained a lot, he ran every night, but usually he chose the car as transport.

"Yeah, It's only 4 km's anyway and I want to finish my coffee." _'..And try to see what the suited ones were doing, they couldn't have gotten far away...' _he added in his mind, this might turn out interesting. He turned his eyes back to the two to see them both shrug before they turned to the door.

"Oh well, we'll see back home then", Nami said over her shoulder smiling a little and stepping out to the fresh air, yes indeed fall was coming it could be felt from the cold winter starting to blow.

-- -- -- --

"Are you sure he went this way?" The blonde woman asked nervously as she and her partner walked the street down. Her movement were a little stiff at times, the last encounter with the brat obviously leaved a mark on her, but she was still thanking God boss had left the two alive. Failure meant death, they had had a second chance to capture the kid. The blonde put her sunglasses on watching the street ahead warily, she didn't want to do it, and she had now understood why the kid's name was well known in their organization. The footsteps echoed at the empty side alley they walked down, and it seemed ominous to her as she remembered the instructions From Mr, Zero, most commonly known as Sir Crocodile.

_The agent's had got themselves gathered from the street and walked, wobbled, crawled, whatever they could do, back to the headquarters. To say they were failed would be same as shrugging it off. They had really messed up and the welcome at the quarter hadn't been great to either of them, two died but the blonde woman and the dark haired man were saved, if not only for the bosses funs. She had started to wonder it later that day, what the kid had said:_

_"I have no idea how many times do I need to make it clear, I'm not paying anything, since I didn't do anything. Ace hasn't done anything. Tell Croc to leave me alone." _

_She had pondered on it, but she didn't ask questions, they weren't allowed in the organisation, but still... Maybe it was because she was defeated that she felt like the other was superior, no that was wrong word, she respected him, was better, of her as well with the fact the raven headed was so young. And after they got their next mission, the doubt came back to her hearing Mr. Zero speak:_

_"I'm tired of your failures... I want the kid here alive"_

_'I want the kid here alive.'_ something was bugging her with that sentence, want him alive... It was like this Monkey D. Luffy had some unfinished, personal, business with Zero. Personal... Or maybe the kid had something their boss needed? Whatever it was, she didn't like the looks of this, when she joined the organisation it was because of the bounty hunting. She was glad she got to go after criminals, but this case didn't feel so good and when she asked about her partner about it the cold answer felt like she was kicked in the stomach again.

"Yeah we bolted straight after him, he can't be far away." The dark haired one said lazily lighting a cigarette and glancing at his partner brow furrowing in thought he didn't like how the other had changed after the encounter with their target, he'd need to smack some sense to the other after this mission "Are you worried he'll get us this time too?" He asked casually while smoking and walking on calmly.

The blonde turned her head to the partner, smiling a little nervously before nodding "A little." 'But not because of what you think' She added on her mind snorting a little at the thought stepping faster, this mission, and they could go back to bounty hunting, she nodded again and frowned as the alley ended to a cross road "Which way?"

"Saa...Let's try this road" The other said flicking his cigarette away and taking a turn left, and to his joy and his partners disappointment they saw Luffy nearby, sit on the ground a block away and trying to get his mp3 player back to work. "Remember the plan?" He listened to the silence frowning and turning to the blonde.

"...Yes, let's go" She nodded and hoped somewhere deep inside that the kid would run away.

-- -- -- --

Luffy sat on the ground in front of a closed coffee house, and opening his mp3 player looking focused and annoyed, it hadn't worked properly ever since it had smacked to the ground after the run over. He sighed a little looking inside of it, which probably wasn't that smart since he tend to break things rather than fix them, but after a while of checking it he noted one wire was broken.

"Hum, Usopp needs to fix it..." He pondered aloud, clicking the mp3's parts back together and he got up brushing his clothes. The ever so lanky body was maybe even skinnier, the muscles still there though, but the lack of food was obviously paying its toll on him, He couldn't say he liked it, it was disturbing and to the guy who was ready to eat all the time it was pure torture, but he could manage. Luffy always managed no matter what it was.

Ace hadn't sent money and he was worried about his older brother, it wasn't like him to be late sending the rent and food money. He slowly glanced the empty street up and down before starting to walk towards to his apartment frowning a little in thought, yes something must've happened to Ace. He went through his pockets as he walked on, getting a piece of paper out smiling a little on it. It said he'd gotten a job in a pet store down town, he knew Ace wouldn't like it that much. He would have wanted the kid to continue on studying, but somewhat even though Luffy wanted in some level to do it too, he had a hunch the money wouldn't be enough. He sighed a little smiling on a few birds flying past. Everything would be fine, Ace had to be fine and he'd get the money for rent himself if needed, he nodded once as if to confirm the fact, before hearing a weird whoosh sound followed by a sudden pain on his neck.

The things following happened as if in slow motion, as he raised his hand to his neck wobbling a little and touching the sore skin carefully, eyes widening feeling a needle stuck out of his neck. This was bad he thought, his hand weakly grabbing it and pulling it out, blood trailing his neck down slowly but surely and staining the shirt. He turned around hearing footsteps and fell to his knees cause of the drug kicking in, trying to fight the dizziness and sleepiness away he managed to focus his eyes and saw the 2 agents from before run to him and heard distantly the other say "We got him!" He felt his conscious fade away he saw something calming, familiar green run without a sound behind the agents. Blinking a few times realisation dawned to him and he smiled lightly. "...Zoro.." Luffy whispered before everything went black as he fell on the ground.

-- -- -- --

"We got him!" The dark haired agent yelled in excited fashion not taking his eyes off the kid now collapsing to the ground, he was chuckling a little and he kneeled down to Luffy giving his partner, who was placing her gun back to her hip, a smirk "You have the best aim for sure.."

"Yeah, I'm not your sharpshooter partner for no reason", she snorted picking the needle from the ground and putting it to her pocket. The blond woman nodded a little to herself, looking the kid lay on his stomach on the ground, her eyes blank before turning to cold grey again, just this mission and she'd get back to bounty hunting. "Lift him up, we need to run. The car's coming to the next block and then we'll get to the headquarters", she spoke putting her phone back to her pocket after reading the info message, blinking a little at the shadow throwing in front of her, she quickly spun around and frowned at the green haired man in front of her and she could feel her partner to get slowly back up. "Who the hell are you?"

The swordsman just smirked watching the blonde in front of him moving his eyes to the dark haired dude and finally let the slide to Luffy and his smirk faltered a little before frowning heavily. "You shouldn't go shooting innocent people in the bright day light..." That was the only warning he gave before fisting the woman to her partner and he didn't feel the least sorry hearing the woman scream from pain and the guy grunt.

"Why you.." the dark haired agent slowly growled taking his gun out and pointing it at Zoro, there was no way they'd fail this mission too!

"Put it down before you hurt yourself" Zoro calmly said, and took a step forward glaring at the man in front of him. He had first wondered if he'd need his swords, but from the looks of it, these guys weren't that strong, the woman was already out the count.

The agent halted for a moment, something in that calm voice was promising pain and lots of it, and before he realised his hand was shaking, why did they give the two low powered agents such hard tasks? He looked the green haired man warily and as if the fear was shining from his eyes, the gun dropped, it making him twitch violently as he stood still seeing the other dash to him. One punch had it all and he dropped to the ground he remembered later the last thoughts he'd had then; _who on the earth was these two?_

Zoro snorted a little watching the two now still agent, sighing a little before frowning worriedly as he quickly stepped to Luffy "Oi kid, Luffy, are you okay?" He frowned more heavily at the completely unmoving and unresponsive body as he gently shook the other "What did they shot you at?" Slowly he ran his thumb over the place the needle had been, wiping all the blood away and sighing again, he dug his phone from his pocket and dialled Nami's number.

"Hello?"

"Nami, can you pick me and Luffy up? We're at..." He quickly looked around but as he saw no street signs he frowned a little "Give me a second." He quickly but carefully picked the raven headed teen up bridal way and leaned back to the phone hearing Namis worried voice on the other end.

"Zoro, what is it, where are you?"

"I'm trying to figure it out" was the grunt and he could practically hear the ginger haired woman frown in the other end, he walked few blocks up finally spotting a sign and sighing a little in relief "We're at Cactus road... number's 8, get here as quick as possible"

"Cactus road 8? What in the world are you doing there?" Nami's worried voice spoke quietly to the swordsman's ear.

"No idea... Just come and pick us up." With that he hung up the phone and sat on a broken bench hoping it wouldn't crash as he waited for the two to come. He had asked a ride from Nami, but he had the feeling Sanji would come too, the cook tended to pop up where ever they were and he had to admit, he'd be curious too. Idly the green haired man stroked the kids hair letting the hat hang from Luffys neck, maybe they should drive the raven head to hospital, the thing they'd shot him with might be poisonous... He gave the kid a small glance before shaking his head _'No, they wanted him alive...' _Zoro blinked a little at his thought, how would he know what they wanted from the kid? But the feeling was there, strong and he decided to believe it. Plus the kid would probably be miffed if he'd wake up from hospital. Sighing he looked what the time was from his phone "Ten minutes since I hang up... Come on Nami..."

-- -- -- --

"Take right from here...and then straight..." Nami said in pondering tone to Sanji who was driving, before she nodded more confident about what she had said and smiled a little "Then we should get to Cactus road, after that we just need to watch out for the two."

"Saa, Nami-san's so wonderful navigator" Sanji smiled relaxed, if Nami said that's how it is, then that's how it is. If he'd went after the Marimo and kid himself, he'd got himself lost in less than 15 minutes, but somehow the ginger head always knew the way no matter where they were going. The blond flicked the cigarette out of the window and took a turn right as he had been advised to do.

"I wonder what happened..." The ginger haired said frowning a little in worry, she bit her lip a little nervously as she looked out of the window for the street sign that would soon tell them they were on the Cactus rd.

Sanji glanced Nami and frowned a little, damn Marimo for making his swan to worry, he would never admit it but he was worried too. "It's fine Nami-san, it's Marimo and Luffy, the moss head will always be fine, and the kid was okay after we drove over him." He smiled a little to the other and to his joy he noted the ginger head to relax on her seat a little. "And besides, we're on the right road already" the cook smiled looking ahead, they should be nearby now.

Nami looked out of the window too and watched the numbers pass 2...4...6... "8... There they are!" She frowned as she watched the green haired man to blink and get up with Luffy on his hands, the kid looked really out of it. What had happened? She turned in her seat watching the two better as Zoro opened the door and closed the door hopping on the back seat by the drivers side. "What happened?"

Zoro looked up at the question and frowned, turning to look at the kid. "Honestly? I don't really know." he slowly spoke out before turning his head back to face Nami "But I think the kid's in trouble"

"What kind of trouble?" Sanji joined the conversation frowning slightly and glancing the unconscious raven head from the mirror. He noticed the blood though he knew Zoro had tried to wipe it away and his frown got deeper. This didn't seem like a small trouble to him... 'What have you gotten yourself into, Luffy?' He concentrated on the driving again, but a thought passed him "Saa, what are we doing now?"

"Let's get back home to clear things out... We'll ask about this from Luffy when he wakes up" Nami nodded smiling slightly, she liked the kid, rather much and there was no way she'd want to leave him alone with his problems.

Zoro stayed quiet and just nodded from the back seat, his eyes gliding to Luffy he started to inspect the kid. Few bruises on his hands like he'd been fighting, one on his eye, but it looked like it was already almost healed, scar under left eye. Without thinking he slowly brushed it with his finger, he hadn't really paid attention to the kid like this when he'd been with him after the crash. The bruises and some weird suit guys after him, they all made him wonder, just what kind of life did Monkey D. Luffy have under that big grin?

-- -- -- --

**A/N: Well this chapter, hum, it's been sorta opening the plot more chapter... or not, maybe you guys think it's meaningless -nervous- I know it's weird and it has a lot of pondering, little bit Luffy, the agent's story... But about the next chapter! It will have lots of Luffy, some friendly ZoLuness and also bit more unwrapping of the plot -nod nod- should be up in a week or about that :3 I has a writy feeling -grins-**

**Same old: Did you like it or did you hate it? Leave a review and let me know! ****Reviews make me write faster! 8D**


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